Cheryl Pollard, RPN, RN, PhD, ANEF

Contact Info

Dr. Cheryl L. Pollard, RN, RPN, PhD, ANEF is a full Professor in the Faculty of Nursing at the University of Regina and an internationally recognized nursing educator, researcher, and academic leader. Dr. Pollard's scholarship focuses on mental health, nursing education, caregiver-centered care, Indigenous health, ethics, and workforce development. She has authored and edited numerous books, book chapters, and peer-reviewed publications, including multiple editions of Varcarolis's Canadian Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing: A Clinical Approach.

Her work has been supported by national funding agencies and has influenced nursing education, health policy, and professional practice across Canada. She served as Dean of the Faculty of Nursing from 2021 to 2025 and has held senior leadership, research, and teaching roles across healthcare and higher education for more than three decades.

A Fellow of the Academy of Nursing Education, Dr. Pollard is committed to fostering inclusive learning environments, advancing ethical scholarship, and strengthening the health workforce through leadership, research, and community engagement. She is a proud Métis citizen of the Métis Nation of Alberta and brings a strong commitment to reconciliation, equity, and meaningful systems change.

Current Teaching

• Supervision of graduate students
• Counselling and Therapeutic Use of Groups: This course focuses on the counselling role of nurses within the therapeutic relationship, individually and in groups. Learners will have the opportunity to develop competencies in promoting self-determination of individuals and groups toward optimum health and well-being.
• Focused Practice: This course provides learners the opportunity to consolidate theory and prepare for assuming the role of registered nurse in a focused practice area.

Recent Grants, Awards and Scholarships

Peer Reviewed Grants and Awards

• 2025-2029     3663: Comrades Forever Operational Stress Injury Peer Support Group ($769,438) (Project Lead).
  • Project funded by Veterans Affairs Canada: Veteran and Family Well-being Fund 
• 2023-2026     The Canadian Behavioural Trials and Interventions Training Platform ($1,776,068) (Co-Investigator)
  • Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) – Clinical Trials Fund
• 2023-2024     Caregiver-Centered Care: Competency – Based Education for the Health Workforce ($75,000) (Co-investigator)
  • Centre for Aging + Brain Health Innovation SPARK Program
• 2023-2024     Exploring historical contexts and structures that impacted nursing and the health of Indigenous Communities ($14,200) (Primary Investigator)
  •  Canadian Association for the History of Nursing - CAHN-ACHN Vera Roberts Research Award
• 2020     Planning Spread and Scale: Health Workforce support Family Caregivers of Older People, Canadian Institutes of Health Research Planning and Dissemination Grants – ICS (2020-03-17) ($20,000) (Principle Applicant)
• 2019-2021     Caregiver-Centered Care: Competency – Based Education for the Health Workforce ($50,000) (Co-investigator). 
  • Funded by the Centre for Aging + Brain Health Innovation SPARK Program
• 2019-2021     Caregiver-Centered Care for Family Caregivers of Clients with Dementia: Competency-based Education for the Health Workforce ($74,326) (Co-investigator). 
  • Funded by Alberta Health Services – Community Innovation Grant initiative for People Affected by Dementia
    

Awards

• 2026 Canadian Nurses Association –Values Award: Courage
  This award recognizes individuals who are passionate about promoting nursing and is an active and unifying voice for the profession. Recipients have demonstrated the use of honest, open, and critical dialogue to advance concrete and bold solutions to issues of importance to nurses, the nursing profession, and health outcomes.
• 2020 Alberta Nursing Education Administrators Award in Recognition of Exemplary Leadership and Commitment to Registered Psychiatric Nurse Education.
• 2020 Reviewers’ Choice Award
  The Alberta College of Family Physicians Reviewers’ Choice Award program recognizes the quality and importance of research projects being displayed at their annual Summit Research Showcase.
• 2019 Academy of Nursing Education Fellow (ANEF)
  This is international recognition from the National League for Nursing. The National League for Nursing has 40,000 individual members and 1200 institutional members. Being inducted as an ANEF indicates that the recipient is internationally recognized as providing visionary leadership and are recognized for their expertise in nursing education. Additionally, recipients must also have made enduring and substantial contributions to nursing education as teachers, mentors, scholars, public policy advocates, practice partners and administrators.
• 2008 3M Quality Team Award
  This national award recognizes innovation quality and patient/family engagement of teams who have applied the quality process to create measurable benefits in their network of services and programs. Jointly awarded by 3M and Canadian College of Health Care Executive
  

Scholarships

• 2026-2027 Impact Scholarship
  International Institute of Restorative Practices Graduate School Impact Scholarships provide full tuition for new graduate degree and certificate students who demonstrate promise for greatly impacting their communities. This is a competitive scholarship.

Recent Research Funding

• 2025-2029     3663: Comrades Forever Operational Stress Injury Peer Support Group ($769,438) (Project Lead)
  • Project funded by Veterans Affairs Canada: Veteran and Family Well-being Fund
  • This community development project supports Canadian and Allied Military Veterans and their families who face the challenges of occupational stress injuries from service-related activities. By fostering a strong, supportive, accountable network through meetings, motorcycle pilgrimages, retreats and community engagements the group aims to prevent veteran suicide and enhance veterans’ and their family members’ well-being. 

Publications

Refereed Articles, Papers, Books or Chapters

Refereed Articles

Pollard, C. (2026). The design of academic advancement: Dissecting tenure and promotion. Advances in Social Sciences and Management, 4(02), 105–111. https://doi.org/10.63002/assm.402.1425

L’Heureux, T., Parmar, J., Nicholas, D., Charles, L., Pollard, C., Leslie, M., Shapkin, K., Saunders, S., Sim, C., Walker, P., Bitzer, G., Khalfan, S., & Anderson, S. (2025). Equipping Change Agents: Applying Mixed Methods to Learn About the Outcomes of the Co-Designed Caregiver-Centered Care Champions Education Program. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 22(10), 1593. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph22101593

Pollard, C. (2025). Rooted in Care: Growing the Nursing Workforce within Rural and Remote Communities. In Global Forum on Innovation in Health Professional Education (Ed.), Addressing Training Site and Slot Shortages Across the Health Professions: A Workshop Series (pp. 29–30). (Invited abstract). National Academies of Science, Engineering & Medicine. 

Parmar, J., L’Heureux, T., Anderson, S., Lobchuk, M., Charles, L., Pollard, C., Powell, L., Chaudhuri, E. R., Fawcett-Arsenault, J., Mosaico, S., Sim, C., Walker, P., Shapkin, K., Weir, C., Sproule, L., Strickfaden, M., Tarnowski, G., Lee, J., & Cameron, C. (2025). Bridging the Care Gap: Integrating Family Caregiver Partnerships into Healthcare Provider Education. Healthcare, 13(15), 1899. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare13151899

Talbot, S., Matthews, E., Todd, S., Mantesso, J., Arvidson, S., & Pollard, C. (2025). Indigenous High School Mentorship for Nursing: A Proposed Pilot Program. (Oral presentation) Council on Nursing Anthropology Abstracts, 84th Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology. Global Qualitative Nursing Research, 12. doi:10.1177/23333936251346280

McKendrick-Calder, L., Shumka, C., Heuver, T., Pollard, C., Morey, K., Chase, T., & Solanki, S. (2024). Navigating nursing student anxiety: A conceptual model. The Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 15(1). doi: 10.5206/cjsotlrcacea.2024.1.14705

Ward, A., Buffalo, L., McDonald, C., L’Heureux, T., Charles, L., Pollard, C., Tian, P. G., Anderson, S., & Parmar, J. (2023). Three Perspectives on the Experience of Support for Family Caregivers in First Nations Communities. Diseases, 11(1), 47. doi:10.3390/diseases11010047

Ward, A., Buffalo, L., McDonald, C., L’Heureux, T., Charles, K., Pollard, C., Tian, P., Anderson, S., & Parmar, J. (2023). Supporting first nations family caregivers and providers: Family Caregivers’, health and community providers’, and leaders’ recommendations. Diseases, 11(54). doi: 10.3390/diseases11020065.

Parmar, J., L’Heureux, T., Anderson, S., Duggleby, W., Pollard, C., Poole, L., Charles, L., Sonnenberg, L., Leslie, M., McGhan, G., Huhn, A., Sereda, S., Marion, C., Tarnowski, G., Mah, J., Melenberg, D., Weir, C., Pooler, C., MacLachlan, N., Bremault-Phillips, S., Tian, P., Sacrey, L. (2022). Optimizing the integration of family caregivers in the delivery of person-centered care: Evaluation of an educational program for the healthcare workforce. BMC Health Services Research, 22(364). doi: 10.1186/s12913-022-07689-w

Kalogirou, M. R., Dahlke, S., Davidson, S., Hunter, K. F., Pollard, C., Salyers, V., Swoboda, N., & Fox, M. (2021). Working with older people: Beginning or end of a nurse’s career? International Journal of Older People Nursing, 16(6), 1–9. Doi: 10.1111/opn.12407

McKendrick, L., Pollard, C., Heuver, T., & Barrington-Moss, G. (2021). Mental Health Literacy: An Essential Tool for Caring Post-Secondary Educators, International Journal for Human Caring, 25(3), 186-193. doi:10.20467/HumanCaring-D-20-00035.

Parmar, J., Anderson, S., Duggleby, W., Holroyd-Leduc, J., & Pollard, C. (2021). Developing Person-Centered Care Competencies for the Healthcare Workforce to Support Family Caregivers: Caregiver Centered Care. Health & Social Care in the Community, 29, 1327-1338. Doi: 10.1111/hsc.13173.

Books

C. Pollard, & S. Jacubek. (Eds). (2023). Varcarolis’s Canadian Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing: A Clinical Approach, Third Canadian Edition. Toronto, Canada: Elsevier Canada.

C. Pollard, & S. Jacubek. (Eds). (2019). Varcarolis’s Canadian Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing: A Clinical Approach, Second Canadian Edition. Toronto, Canada: Elsevier Canada.

Pollard, C. (2018). The Mental Status Exam – A Guide for Beginning Clinicians. Canadian Scholars’ Press Toronto, Canada.

C. Pollard, S. Ray, & M. Haase, (Eds). (2014). Varcarolis’s Canadian Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing: A Clinical Approach, First Canadian Edition. Toronto, Canada: Elsevier Canada.

Books in Development

C. Pollard, & S. Jacubek. (Eds). (in development). Varcarolis’s Canadian Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing: A Clinical Approach, Fourth Canadian Edition. Toronto, Canada: Elsevier Canada.

C. Pollard (Ed.). (in development) Nursing’s Legacy of Colonization (working title).

C. Pollard & S. Blackstock. (Eds). (in development). Indigenous Health and Health Care Delivery in Canada (working title) 1st Edition. Toronto, Canada: Elsevier Canada.

Chapters

Pollard, C. (2026). Caring for the mental, emotional, and behavioural health needs of children and adolescents. In L. Keenan-Lindsay, & C. O’Connor (Eds). Perry’s Maternal Child Nursing in Canada 4th Edition (page numbers pending). Toronto, ON: Elsevier.

Pollard, C. (2025) Well-being and resilience: Welcome to nursing. In D. Sheppard-LeMoine & L. M. Forcier (Eds.). Gidden’s Concepts and Competencies for Canadian Nursing Practice (page numbers pending). Toronto, Canada: Elsevier Canada.

Pollard, C. (2024). The child with an emotional or behavioural condition. In L. Keenan-Lindsay, & G. Leifer (Eds). Leifer’s Introduction to Maternity and Pediatric Nursing in Canada, Second Edition (801-820). Toronto, Canada: Elsevier Canada.

Non-Refereed Articles, Papers, Books or Chapters

Pollard, C. (2011). The good, the bad and the therapeutic: The study of psychiatric nursing care in film (unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada

Pollard, C. (1997). The Impact of a Psycho-Educational Program on Client’s Symptoms and Health-Related Hardiness (unpublished master’s thesis). University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada

Conference Presentations & Invited Academic Lectures

Bourgeault, I., Corace, K., Chandrasekera, U., Menear, M., Pollard, C. (May 28, 2026). Integrated mental health and substance use health care in primary care in Canada: Time for some hard truths? (Panel Presentation). Canadian Association of Health Services and Policy Research: Ottawa, ON, Canada.

Kohler, H., Knaak, S., Pollard, C., & Tello, K. (April 29, 2026). Stigma-Free & Inclusive: A Pathway to Quality Health Care. (Workshop – Full Day). Saskatoon: Mental Health Commission of Canada.

Pollard, C., Ortega, P., Hodson, A., Ezeugoh, R., Tchorzewski, S., Perkin, A., Mayer, K., & McKinley-Yoder, C. (April 28, 2026). Enhancing nursing education through equity-driven approaches. (Oral Presentation). Western North-Western Region Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing, Lethbridge, AB, Canada.

Robinson, T., McKinley, L., Pollard, C., Hill, D., Balsdon, D., & Stonechild, A. (April 28, 2026). Advancing Indigenous Health Education in Nursing: A Collaborative Curricular Review. (Oral Presentation). Western North-Western Region Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing, Lethbridge, AB, Canada.

McKinley Yoder, C., Mayer, K., & Pollard, C. (2026, April 21-24). Co-evaluation of North American Nursing Curricula using an Equity Lens. [Symposium presentation]. Western Institutes of Nursing, San Francisco, CA, United States  

Kohler, H., Knaak, S., Pollard, C., Chadwick, C., & Tello, K. (December 11, 2025). Stigma-Free & Inclusive: A Pathway to Quality Health Care. (Workshop – Full Day). Ottawa: Mental Health Commission of Canada.

McKinley-Yoder, C., Mayer, K., & Pollard, C. (December 4-6, 2025). Curriculum Evaluation to Advance Health Equity. (Podium Presentation). Transform 2025 – The Future in Focus: Advancing Practice-Ready Education in Baccalaureate and Master’s Programs. Anaheim, California. (Peer Reviewed).

Mayer, K., McKinley-Yoder, C., & Pollard, C. (November 4, 2025). Psychometric Evaluation of a Curriculum Evaluation Tool for DEI: An international collaboration, Abstract ID: 565459. (Poster Presentation) American Public Health Association's 2025 Annual Meeting & Expo, Washington, D.C. (Peer Reviewed).

Mayer, K., McKinley-Yoder, C., & Pollard, C. (November 2, 2025). An International Collaboration in DEI Curriculum Evaluation: Lessons Learned. (Podium Presentation). American Association of Colleges of Nursing: 2025 Academic Nursing Leadership Conference, Washington, D.C. (Peer Reviewed).

McKinley-Yoder, C., Mayer, K., & Pollard, C. (July 17-20, 2025). Psychometric Evaluation of a Curriculum Evaluation Tool for DEI: An international collaboration. (Poster Presentation). Sigma 36th International Nursing Research Congress 2025. Seattle, Washington. (Peer Reviewed).

Pollard, C. (May 23, 2025). What’s Next? Opportunities to transform Learning Experiences and Enhance the Preparation of Future Nurses. (Panel Presentation: Invited). Western North-Western Region Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing, Kelowna, BC, Canada.

Pollard, C. (November 29, 2024). Evaluating Equity Diversity Inclusiveness and Accessibility Impact: Develop skills to evaluate the impact of EDIA initiatives on the outcomes of behavioral trials. (Virtual Oral Presentation - Invited) International Behavioural Trials Network, Canada.

Pollard, C. (November 18, 2024). Leaning into the Complexity of Precision Nursing Education. (Invited). Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing, Ottawa, ON, Canada.

Talbot, S., Matthews, E., Todd, S., Mantesso, J., Arvidson, S., & Pollard, C. (March 26-28, 2024). Indigenous High School Mentorship for Nursing: A Proposed Pilot Program. (Oral presentation) Council on Nursing & Anthropology Abstracts, 84th Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology, Santa Fe, NM, USA. (Peer Reviewed).

Pollard, C. (November 14, 2023). Unbounded: Reducing Structural Barriers for Nursing Education. (Invited). Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing, Ottawa, ON, Canada.

Pollard, C. (July 1-5, 2023). Diary of a New Dean: Reflections of Core Exemplary Practices. (Poster Presentation) International Council of Nurses Congress, Montreal, QC, Canada. (Peer Reviewed).

Topola, L., McKendrick-Calder, L., Heuver, T., & Pollard, C. (July 1-5, 2023). Disrupting Structural Barriers: A Call to Action: A Self-Paced Workshop. (Poster Presentation) International Council of Nurses Congress, Montreal, QC, Canada. (Peer Reviewed).

Offiah, A., Hodson, A., Weibe, M., Spring, G., Pollard, C., Ejike, V., Hu, S., & Lerat, M. (May 29-30, 2023). Anti-racisim Communities of Practice in Saskatchewan Collaborative Bachelor of Science in Nursing (SCBScN) Program. (Panel/Symposium Presentation) Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing, St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada. (Peer Reviewed).

Pollard, C. (May 28, 2023). The Questions of Relational Ethics. (Oral Presentation). British Columbia Provincial Health Services Authority: Ethics for Lunch Education Series (Virtual). (Invited). Vancouver,

Pollard, C. (March 28, 2023). Innovations in training and education targeting rural and remote settings. (Invited - Oral Presentation) Committee on Health Workforce (standing committee that reports to the federal Conference of Duty Ministers - Membership consists of the federal and provincial co-chairs plus one senior-level delegate from each federal, provincial, and territorial Ministry of Health.). Toronto, Canada.

Parmar, J., Melenberg, D., Tarnowski, G., McGhan, G., Leslie, M., Sonnenberg, L. K., Charles, L., Pollard, C., Anderson, S., & L'Heureux, T. (April 7-9, 2022). Engaging Multi-level Interdisciplinary Stakeholders in Co-design of Competency-Based Education: Stepping towards integrated supports for family caregivers. (Poster Presentation) Canadian Geriatrics Society 41st Annual Scientific Conference (Virtual). (Peer Reviewed).

Current Research

My current research focuses on advancing nursing education, mental health and well-being, Indigenous health, health equity, and health workforce development. I am actively engaged in research examining the historical and contemporary factors that influence Indigenous health and nursing, the integration of equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility within health professions education, and innovative approaches to preparing future nurses for increasingly complex healthcare environments. My work also explores caregiver-centered care, mental health literacy, resilience, and suicide prevention, with a particular interest in supporting underserved, rural, remote, Indigenous, and veteran populations. Through interdisciplinary and community-engaged scholarship, I seek to develop practical, evidence-informed solutions that strengthen healthcare systems, improve educational outcomes, and promote equitable access to care.

In the News - Commentary & Columns

Sherbeck, D. (Host). (September 10, 2025 - present). The HQ: In Focus: A Panel Discusses How to Talk about Suicide in Healthcare [Audio podcast]. CHA Learning: HealthCareCAN. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXFnVEv0U4Q

About this episode
Panel Members: Anita David, Dr. Cheryl Pollard, and Dr. Allison Crawford
Excerpt from transcript:
In this special episode of the HQ podcast, we explore one of the most difficult—and most important—of healthcare topics: suicide.

A conversation about suicide likely seems fraught and fearful to most people. Rare even health professionals, who may be in some of the best positions to save someone from harm, can struggle with where to begin and what to say. How personal should you be, and how vulnerable can you allow yourself to become? How do you create a safe space for dialogue—and what if you say the wrong thing? Perhaps most daunting of all: what happens when a patient, resident, or client says, “yes, I am thinking about suicide”? In that moment, what is your shared responsibility to both address suicide and instill hope?